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The Value of Everything Depends on Ethical Goodness
Socrates says that virtue can make bad things good, whilst vice only makes good things bad. On the basis of this, he claims that virtue is sufficient for a good life. Socrates’ claim is very challenging. It’s often laughed at by his interlocutors, as if it’s expressing a kind of simple-minded childlike innocence, not worthy of a grown up. It’s too easy for us to take the same attitude. It’s too easy to dismiss Socrates as a kind of arch moraliser, telling us to ‘be good’ from a place of idle words. This would miss Socrates’ point entirely. Socrates isn’t…
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Serious Contradictions
We have forgotten to take these things seriously. We lecture about how philosophers should not lecture but ask questions. We demand honours and titles for a discipline that claims to renounce honours and titles. We charge fees for something that we say is priceless. We live in contradiction with ourselves and then call ourselves logicians.
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What is a Good Life?
This is a difficult question. To answer it, you need to make sure you’re asking the right question in the right way. Consider any part of what you might traditionally (or stereotypically) think of as being essential to living a good life: wealth, property, success, family, love, confidence, popularity, freedom, power, status, productivity, etc., etc. These are the things that most people aim for […]
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What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? ‘The construction of arguments.’ You may as well say that music is the activity of plucking strings. Some musicians do this, of course, and it can be done well or badly, but that is hardly the point.
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Like Playing Music
Philosophy, when done properly, is like playing a musical instrument. The outsider only sees the music written down and thinks that this is all it means to play music. But the player reads the music and plays.
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Out of the Pit
Rousseau says we cannot complain that God does not drag us out of the pit because He has given us everything we need to not fall into it in the first place; but the philosopher has also been given everything they need to drag themselves out!
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Shadow Chasing: Afterword
By sheer coincidence, the day I published a post about how ‘once upon a time I used to chase shadows but now I don’t do that anymore’ was the same day I caught a shadow that I’ve been chasing for a little while. While out shopping for food and nappies and cleaning products, I thought I’d check the magazine stand to see if they had a copy of a publication for which I’d notionally had an article accepted. And there I was, enigmatically-half-smiling back at me from the back page! I feel a rush of…pride? Satisfaction? I’m not sure, but…
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Good Enough
I am convinced that virtue is necessary for happiness. I am not convinced that it’s sufficient. But knowing that it is necessary to be good is good enough for me.
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Be More of What is Good
The goal in life is not to have more of what is good but to be more of what is good.
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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